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Chanukah, the Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev.

Chanukah is probably one of the best known Jewish holidays, not because of any great religious significance, but because of its proximity to Christmas. Many non-Jews think of this holiday as the Jewish Christmas, adopting many of the Christmas customs, such as elaborate gift-giving and decoration.

It is not a question of if, but when Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will be forced to leave office, one way or another. The inexorable process has been accelerated by several dramatic developments over the last seven days. Bibi has lashed out in a startling and unbridled tirade against the nation's entire legal process focusing on Israeli police investigators who have been questioning him on suspicion of financial corruption and trying to 'fix' news coverage. He was speaking at a gathering of Likud party rank and file at a Chanukah celebration. But a beleaguered Bibi had little to celebrate - things have been going from bad to worse.

The opening of King-George street marked the seventh anniversary of the conquering of Jerusalem by the British forces headed by General Allenby, and was named after the British king of that time - King George the fifth.

It is not just America's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, important as that may be. And what is more natural and just than recognizing the 'City of David' which was founded over three thousand years ago, long before Washington, Moscow, London, Paris, or even Ottawa existed? Its very name, Jerusalem, is derived from the Hebrew language and spoken by Israelis today.

The fact is that President Trump's historic decision has bankrupt the long-standing policy of the Palestinian 'peace camp'. And this is why: the Palestinians have long been divided, since the Arabs lost their 1967 war against Israel, on how to force Israel back to the old 'Green' cease-fire line of 1967 without recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

The Izmir Jewish Heritage Tourism project was formally launched as a tourism venture in Turkey this month at the Travel Turkey Izmir International Tourism Fair, which took place Dec. 4-7. The tourism project is being carried out by the GPC travel company, which is specialized in the field of Culture tourism, via an agreement with the Izmir Jewish Community Foundation and the Kiriaty Foundation.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him!"

(FDR was referring to the necessity of the U.S. entering WWII against Nazi Germany)

Foreign reports disclosed that on the night of December 2nd, Israeli rockets destroyed a new Iranian military base being built 15 kilometers from the Syrian capital Damascus. The new facility was located near a Syrian Army installation and was designed to house 500 troops as well as military vehicles. Several weeks ago, BBC TV satellite photos revealed the new Iranian military site located 50 kilometers from the Israeli border on the Golan Heights. The IDF has refused to comment on the air attack, saying it does not respond to foreign news reports. Israeli Cabinet Minister Yoav Gallant did state:

"Israel has no intention of letting Iran establish another Hezbollah in Syria!"

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution, which adopted the plan for the partition of Palestine, recommended by the majority of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). 33 states voted in favor of the resolution and 13 against. 10 states abstained.

What should Israelis make of the Daesh(ISIL-ISIS) Bloodbath in Sinai?

Friday morning at a packed mosque near the town of el-Arish in Sinai:

Thousands of Sunni Muslims have packed the Mosque for the traditional Friday morning prayers. Suddenly, four or five pickup trucks speed toward the Mosque where a throng has gathered outside. In the vehicles, an estimated 20 terrorists open fire with machine guns spraying the bystanders. Simultaneously, explosive charges blow up inside the building. The terrorists then run inside firing RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and machine gun the worshippers. Pandemonium – terror at its worst! The panic-stricken worshippers, many of them Egyptian off-duty soldiers, race for the exits. But in the packed building, it is almost impossible to escape. Some of the shooters even go from wounded to wounded shooting them dead at point blank range.

It is hard to envisage this diabolical inferno. The terrorists, after an estimated 20 minutes, then run back to their pickups and make their get-away. It is the worst terrorist atrocity in Egypt's history. At this time 305 Egyptian Muslims have been massacred and another 500 have been wounded, some of them critically. Daesh wanted to make a point; they have been beaten in Syria and Iraq but they are still alive and kicking.

Four terrorists were sent on a suicide mission to fly 80 kilometers on motorized hang-gliders into an IDF army base next to the city of Kiryat-Shemonah. One of the attackers reached his target, killing 6 IDF soldiers.

Rafael "Raful" Eitan was an Israeli general, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and later a politician, a Knesset member and government minister. Born in Afula during the Mandate era, Eitan was raised in Moshav Tel Adashim, where he spent most of his life.

The cost to treat obesity in the United States alone is expected to rise from $325 billion in 2014 to $555 billion per year by 2025.

Raziel Therapeutics wants to be the Botox for obesity.

Whereas an injection of Botox smooths out wrinkles, this Jerusalem medical startup is developing an injection that doesn’t just smooth, but literally melts away fat cells. Unlike Botox, though, Raziel’s fat-burning approach has the potential to do a lot more than simply make you look better.

Op-ed: Even if the prime minister did know about his advisers’ involvement in the submarine affair, and he likely did, not for a moment did he think he was doing anything wrong. Even if his associates were making a profit from the deal, he still believed it would benefit the state.

Tell me, I am asked over and over again, both by friends and by people who aren’t my friends, have you people in the media gone mad? Do you really think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sold the state’s interest to help his friends get rich?

On the anniversary of the death of Israels first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, IsraCast brings you Ben-Gurion's biography, two audio interviews from Canadian radio stations in the year 1961, and a transcript of highlights from the Decleration of Independence - read by him on May 14th, 1948.

A brilliant orator, Eban served as diplomat, government minister and Member of Knesset. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he sought to consolidate Israel’s relations with the United States and secure association with the European Economic Community. Before and after the Six-Day War, he led Israel in its political struggle in the UN.

In an unprecedented step, IDF Gen. Yoav Mordechai has gone on TV to warn Gaza's leaders that Israel knows they are planning a retaliatory strike against Israel and that the IDF will hit back hard. Speaking in Arabic, Gen. Mordechai said that Islamic Jihad and Hamas 'were playing with fire'. Two weeks ago, Israeli jets blew up a terror tunnel inside Israeli territory for infiltrating terrorists to kill and kidnap capture Israeli civilians near the kibbutz of Kissufim. Fourteen terrorists were killed, including several top leaders of Islamic Jihad. Five of them are still believed to be buried under the rubble because Israel refuses to permit Islamic Jihad them to dig out their bodies unless the Palestinians also agree to return the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed and kidnapped during an actual cease-fire over three years ago. The Palestinians refuse.

The Bnei Menashe (sons of Manasseh) community is a group of people from India's North Eastern regions who trace their ancestry to a distant forefather named Manmasi, who is believed to have been Menashe, son of Joseph, son of Jacob, making them descendants of one of the lost ten tribes of Israel.

Szenes was one of 37 Jews living in Palestine, now Israel, who were trained by the British army to parachute into Yugoslavia during World War II in order to help save the Jews of Hungary, who were about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz. Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border, imprisoned and tortured, but she refused to reveal details of her mission, and was eventually tried and executed by firing squad.

Lebanese bombshell! Prime Minister Saad Hariri has resigned charging Iran is using its proxy Hezbollah to take over Lebanon.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, Hariri also said he feared for his life. And with good reason – in 2005 Hezbollah terrorists apparently assassinated his father Rafik Hariri, who then served as Prime Minister. Four Hezbollah suspects are being tried in absentia by the International Court in the Hague. The Hariri family is Sunni Muslim while Iran and Hezbollah are Shiite. But not only Lebanon is being threatened by Tehran. In Hariri's words:

'Iran is sowing fear and destruction in several Middle East countries'.

On 1941 the Arab Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini met with Adolf Hitler and discussed ways to 'solve the Jewish problem'. Three years later the Nazis and the Arabs of Palestine planned to poison the drinking water in Tel-Aviv with Arsenic poison.

Yitzhak Rabin was murdered on November 4th, 1995 by a Jewish assassin, Yigal Amir. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel from 1974 until 1977 and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians and the peace treaty with Jordan, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize For Peace in 1994.
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Joint Operation of Britain, France and Israel against Egypt

On October 29, 1956 Britain, France and Israel launched a military operation against Egypt. In a swift, sweeping operation of 100 hours, under the leadership of then Chief of the General Staff, Moshe Dayan, the entire Sinai peninsula fell into Israeli hands, at a cost of 231 soldiers killed. This operation was held in response to the closing of the Suez Canal by the Egyptians and terrorist attacks on Israel that violated the armistice agreement between the two countries.